Disaster for Ricciardo as Vettel makes Ferrari history in Melbourne

Sebastian Vettel made history for Ferrari this weekend in Melbourne securing Ferrari’s first win on Australian soil since 2007. However, for some it didn’t go so well.

A home race for Daniel Ricciardo meant a lot of expectations and pressure to perform. Practice and qualifying didn’t go as smoothly as most hoped, as Ricciardo was dropping places in the practice sessions as each day went by.

Ricciardo qualified in tenth after his red bull ended up in the wall during the third qualifying session. His team mate, Max Verstappen, having the same fate during practice but managed to qualify fifth for Sunday’s race.

Daniel Ricciardo’s Q3 crash. (Sutton Motorsport Images)

“The problem is with the Red Bull, it’s [the engine] too new. They didn’t get to test it enough.”, said Bill Nolan, when questioned about the problems Red Bull were suffering.

The disaster weekend didn’t stop there for Ricciardo. Due to his crash in Q3 the Red Bull mechanics were left with no option but to do a gearbox change. Doing this meant a penalty was given to Ricciardo, demoting him five places to start the race from fifteenth on the grid.

With Lewis Hamilton on pole and Vettel in second, the drivers left pit lane ahead of the race start. Ricciardo suffered another low blow, with his Red Bull coming to a halt on the grid formation lap, the car jammed in sixth gear due to a faulty sensor.

Making it back to the pits, the Red Bull mechanics worked tirelessly to resolve the issue, managing to get him out onto the track on the second lap. Twenty-five laps later, the last blow came, with Ricciardo’s Red Bull inevitably suffering an engine failure.

In a post race interview, Daniel Ricciardo had this to say, “Not the weekend I wanted. For all these things to happen at my home race, that’s probably the most frustrating thing.”

The Formula One continues next weekend in China, where Ricciardo expects to do better.